BBC News | SHOWBIZ | From humble beginnings to Hollywood Wednesday, 27 March, 2002, 20:20 GMT From humble beginnings to Hollywood Moore studied music at Oxford University Actor, comedian and musician Dudley Moore has died aged 66. BBC News Online looks how he went from a tough childhood in Essex to global fame. Dudley Moore was born in Charing Cross Hospital, London, on Good Friday, 1935. He was at a disadvantage from the start, both physically and economically. According to his official biographer, Barbra Paskin, when his mother, Ada, found she had given birth to a boy with a club foot and a withered leg she said: "This isn't my baby." Ada had to be persuaded to take her son home to the Dagenham council house where she lived with her husband Jock, a railway worker, and his five-year-old sister, Barbara. He drew on his Dagenham roots for his comedy Throughout his boyhood, Moore had to endure several painful operations on his left leg that was half an inch shorter than the other, and his relationship with his mother haunted him all his life.

She found it difficult to show her son the affection he craved, but at the same time she was also extremely ambitious for him. A strong-willed woman, Ada fought for him to attend grammar school, Dagenham County High, despite the headmaster's belief that he would be better off in an establishment that could deal with his physical disability. At school, he had to wear shorts that exposed his deformity and was constantly bullied about his leg. He eventually discovered a defence mechanism by making his peers laugh. Scholarship Playing the clown turned him from a victim into one of the most popular boys at the school. Moore's musical talent won him a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music where he played the piano. He taught himself the organ at his local church and had to adapt one of his mother's shoes for his deformed left leg in order to play it. To the immense pride of his mother, the boy from Essex won an organ scholarship to Oxford University. However, his humble origins and Dagenham twang made him feel inadequate among the upper class students at Magdalen College and he felt especially out of place in the magnificent college chapel.

Moore with wife Suzy Kendall in 1971 "There I was, sitting on the organ seat playing this beautiful organ in this stunning chapel. I felt I didn't deserve to be there," he told his biographer, Ms Paskin. Satire Later, Moore was to spend years in psychotherapy dealing with this lack of self-esteem which never quite left him even after he had reached the height of fame. While at university he teamed up with Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett to write and present Beyond the Fringe, a satirical revue. This sparked the beginning of his career in showbusiness, which saw him take roles in television and film, and he also moved to the US to continue his life there. Moore went through four marriages But by the late 1980s and 1990s his off-screen love life took the limelight, often gaining more column inches than his career. Moore was married four times. His wed his first wife, British actress and model Suzy Kendall in 1968, and although they divorced in 1972 they remained lifelong friends.

Three years later the actor, now living in Los Angeles, married wife number two - Tuesday Weld, also an actress. They split up 20 times during their marriage, had a son - Patrick - in 1977 and finally got divorced in 1980. His music was sometimes overshadowed by his comedy Moore later expressed deep regret that he had missed out on his son's childhood. His two-year marriage to Brogan Lane, aspiring actress and 25 years younger than him, ended in 1990. Moore had already had several affairs with, among others, long-time lover Nicole Rothschild. Ms Rothschild, who was almost 30 years his junior, became his fourth and last wife in 1994. They first met at the peak of his career when she flung herself across the bonnet of his car and demanded an autograph. Their relationship was often troubled - and their rows became regular features in gossip columns on both sides of the Atlantic. Divorce Their living arrangements were also complex - Ms Rothschild's ex-husband, Charles Cleveland lived with the couple and was even present at the birth of their son, Nicholas, in 1995.

In December 1996, the couple were pictured again at the balcony of their home, reunited after another heated row. But by June 1997, Ms Rothschild sued her husband for millions, claiming he had terrorised her during their relationship. After a stream of lurid claims about sex, drugs and violence, she halted her divorce action in June 1998 after learning of his illness. Gifts As well as having a stormy love life, Moore was also known for his extravagance, which was revealed in documents produced by Ms Rothschild's lawyers, in April 1998. He allegedly spent more than �34,000 on a separate house for her not far from his mansion in Marina del Rey, as well as thousands more on gifts and cosmetic surgery for his wife, clothes for her friends, houses and holidays for her ex-husband and his family. But by the time he died, he was surrounded peacefully by friends. He leaves behind two sons - Patrick, 21, by his second wife, and Nicholas, six, by Ms Rothschild.

Comedy idol Famous People with Club Feet or Foot Famous People with Club Feet or Foot Approximately 50% of cases of clubfoot are bilateral. In most cases it is an isolated dysmelia. Incidence in males is higher than in females. See our list of well known and famous people with a club foot. A clubfoot, or talipes equinovarus (TEV), is a birth defect. The foot is twisted in (inverted) and down. Without treatment , persons afflicted often appear to walk on their ankles, or on the sides of their feet. It is a common birth defect, occurring in about one in every 1,000 live births. Approximately 50% of cases of clubfoot are bilateral. In most cases it is an isolated dysmelia. Incidence in males is higher than in females. There are different causes for clubfoot: Mainly caused by Edwards' syndrome, a genetic defect with three copies of chromosome 18 genetic causes with incidence rates increasing significantly when multiple direct family members have the condition external influences such as intrauterine compression from oligohydramnios or from amniotic band syndrome.

Clubfoot is treated with manipulation largely by a podiatrist, sometimes an orthopedic surgeons, specialist nurses, or orthotists, will treat the condition by providing FAB braces to hold the feet in orthodox positions, serial casting, or small splints called knee ankle foot orthoses(KAFO). After correction has been achieved, maintenance of correction may require the full-time (23 hours per day) use of a splint-also known as a foot abduction brace (FAB)-on both feet, regardless or whether the TEV is on one side or both, for several weeks after treatment. Part-time use of a brace (generally at night, usually 12 hours per day) is frequently prescribed for up to 4 years. Famous People with a Club Foot Damon Wayans - Damon Kyle Wayans (born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor who began his career as a stand-up comic in 1982. He is one of the Wayans brothers.

He has four sisters, Vonnie, Nadia, Kim, Deidre, and four brothers, actors Marlon Wayans, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and Dwayne Wayans. He had a clubbed foot as a child. This attribute would also be given to his character in My Wife & Kids and his character on the cartoon series Waynehead a cartoon for the WB, loosely based on his own childhood growing up in a large family, starring a poor boy with a club foot. Allen Dulles - Famous US spy master and CIA director also the top spy in Europe in World Wars One and Two. The book "Allen Dulles Master of Spies" by James Strodes says Dulles was born with club foot april 23rd 1893. Steven George Gerrard - MBE - (born 30 May 1980 in Whiston, Merseyside, England) is an English footballer who plays for and captains Premier League club Liverpool. He also has 89 caps for the England national team. Gerrard is widely regarded as one of the greatest English footballers ever.

Claudius - Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I (August 1, 10 BC - October 13, AD 54) (Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus before his accession) was the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), to Drusus and Antonia Minor, he was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italia. Josef Goebbels - Notorious Nazi propaganda minister, had a right club foot (possibly incurred after birth as a complication of osteomyelitis), a fact hidden from the German public by censorship. Because of this malformation, Goebbels needed to wear a leg brace. That, plus his short stature, led to his rejection for military service in World War I. Eric Richard - (born 27 June 1940) is an actor based in Britain and is most famous for his role in the British ITV channels "The Bill" for his role as Sergeant Bob Cryer.

His television work has also included Home Sweet Home, Made in Britain, Open All Hours, Games Without Frontiers, P'Tang Yang Kipperbang, Shoestring, and Holby City. Eric was born in Margate and grew up in Brixton, South London and was born with club feet. Charles Woodson - (born on October 7, 1976 in Fremont, Ohio) is an American football cornerback for the Green Bay Packers. He played college football at the University of Michigan for the Michigan Wolverines. In 1997, Woodson led the Wolverines to a share of the national championship. He is the only primarily defensive player to have won the Heisman Trophy. Chuck was born with a club foot and had to wear braces until he was 4 years old to fix the problem. On April 26, 2006, Woodson and the Green Bay Packers reached a 7-year contract agreement that could be worth as much as $52.7 million with bonuses and incentives.

Lawrence Sherry - (July 25, 1935 - December 17, 2006) was an American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1959 World Series as the Dodgers won their first championship since relocating from Brooklyn just two years earlier. Sherry was born with clubfeet for which he needed surgery as an infant and wore special shoes. Dudley Moore - Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE (April 19, 1935 - March 27, 2002), was an Academy-Award nominated and Golden Globe-winning English actor, comedian and musician. Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s and became increasingly famous as half of the double-act he formed with Peter Cook.

He was notably short: 5' 21/2" (1.59 m) and was born with a club foot that required extensive hospital treatment and which, coupled with his diminutive stature, made him the butt of jokes by other children. Gary Burghoff - (born May 24, 1943) is an American actor, best known for playing the character Corporal Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly in the M*A*S*H series and Charlie Brown in the 1967 off-Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.Born with a club foot and four short fingers on his left hand, Burghoff uses props to deflect attention from this: in Charlie Brown he had a baseball glove on that hand most of the time, and in the M*A*S*H television series, he usually had a clipboard or other object to conceal the defect. Freddy Sanchez - Frederick Phillip "Freddy" Sanchez, Jr. (born December 21, 1977 in Hollywood, California) is an infielder in Major League Baseball.

Since 2002, Sanchez has played for the Boston Red Sox (2002-03) and Pittsburgh Pirates (2003-Present). He bats and throws right-handed. His success in high school was nothing short of miraculous. Sanchez was born with a severely pigeon-toed left foot and a club right foot, and his parents had received a medical diagnosis that he might never walk. He underwent surgery to correct his foot problems at 13 months, and then had to undergo years of physical therapy before he could walk properly. Jim Mecir - James Jason Mecir (born on May 16, 1970 in Queens, New York) is an American former baseball player. He played for 5 teams in an 11-year career, and retired from the Florida Marlins in 2005. He is a right-handed pitcher. Mecir is notable for having overcome a birth defect (namely club feet) to become an effective Major League pitcher, as well as for being the last pitcher to regularly throw a screwball.

He spent 41/2 years as a member of the Oakland Athletics, and is prominently mentioned in Michael Lewis's bestselling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. In 2003, Mecir received the Tony Conigliaro Award, given annually to the player who most effectively overcomes adversity to succeed in baseball. Mecir was born with two club feet; despite several childhood surgeries that enabled him to walk, he was left unable to properly push off the rubber with his right foot. He was forced to develop an unorthodox delivery that gave him an unusually violent screwball. He was one of the last screwball pitchers active in the major leagues. David Lynch - David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an filmmaker, painter, composer, video artist, and performance artist from the United States . Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001). He has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. Lynch is probably best known for Blue Velvet and as the creator of the Twin Peaks television series.

Mia Hamm - (born Mariel Margaret Hamm on March 17, 1972 in Selma, Alabama) is a former American soccer player. Playing for many years as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team, she scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female, in the history of the sport . She was a member of the women soccer team, who won the Olympics in 1996 Hamm was among those eager to develop their sports ability, but first she had to overcome the birth defect of a partial clubfoot. "Casts were placed on her feet to try and correct that irregularity," said Hamm's sister Caroline Cruickshank. "As soon as those things were taken off her feet, you could not stop her." Kristi Yamaguchi - Kristine Tsuya "Kristi" Yamaguchi (Kristi Hedican) (born July 12, 1971) is an American figure skater and the 1992 Olympic Champion in women's singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S.

Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won two national titles in 1989 and 1990 and one junior world title in 1988 as a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo. In December 2005, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Yamaguchi began skating as a child, as physical therapy for her club feet. Troy Aikman - Troy Kenneth Aikman (born November 21, 1966 in West Covina, California) is a former American football quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, and currently a television sportscaster for the Fox network. He is also a joint owner of the NASCAR Nextel Cup racing team, Hall of Fame Racing, along with fellow former Cowboys quarterback, Roger Staubach. Troy Aikman's was born with what doctors call "Third Club Foot", Troy was in plaster till he was 8 months old, then he wore special shoes till he was 3 years old, since then he has not suffered from any form of Club Foot.

Pat Summerall - George Allen "Pat" Summerall is a former American football player and well-known television sportscaster, having worked at CBS, FOX, and, briefly, ESPN. Summerall is best known for his work with John Madden on CBS and FOX's NFL telecasts, and in 1999 he was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame. He was born with a club foot. Doctors surgically repaired it, a radical procedure by 1930's standards. Summerall remembers, "They told my family that I would never be able to run and play, maybe I could walk, just maybe." However the surgery was successful. With his foot recovering nicely, Summerall fell in love with sports. Miguel Riffo - Miguel Augusto Riffo Garay (born June 21, 1981) is a Chilean footballer, who plays defender currently for Colo-Colo. He started his career in the youth system of Colo-Colo and has stayed with them throughout his career. He captains Colo-Colo at times. He also has represented the Chilean national team on three occasions.

Miguel Riffo was born on 21 June 1981 with a clubfoot. Sir Walter Scott - 1st Baronet (August 14, 1771 - September 21, 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time. In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake , Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian. Thaddeus Stevens - (April 4, 1792 - August 11, 1868), also known as "The Great Commoner," was a United States Representative from Pennsylvania. He was a Radical Republican, and gained fame as a lawyer defending runaway slaves. Stevens encouraged strong, sweeping action by the federal government to revolutionize the institutions and culture that bolstered white supremacy in the South.

The measures he supported included the Fourteenth Amendment and an unsuccessful plan to confiscate plantations and redistribute the land to former slaves. He suffered from many hardships during his childhood, including a club foot. George Gordon Byron - 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788-19 April 1824), commonly known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Among Lord Byron's best-known works are the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. The latter remained incomplete on his death. He is regarded as one of the greatest European poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English speaking world and beyond. He was born with a club-foot and became extreme sensitivity about his lameness. His life did not become easier when he received painful treatments for his foot by a quack practitioner in 1799. Eventually he got a corrective boot. LeRoy Butler - July 19, 1968 - is a former American football strong safety who played his entire career with the Green Bay Packers (1990 - 2001). LeRoy has club feet.

He spent his childhood in Jacksonville, Florida, challenged by physical problems that forced him to wear leg braces and use a wheelchair at times while undergoing therapy. In 2007, he was named to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team, which selected the "Top 33" players in the 100-year history of Florida high school football. Arthur : Star Of The Week Arthur : Star Of The Week Birth Name: Dudley Stuart John Moore Birthdate: April 19, 1935 Occupations: Actor, Writer, Musician, Composer Claim to Fame: 1981: Oscar-nominated role as Arthur (1981) Dudley Moore , one of Britain's best-loved comedians, actors and musicians, has died aged 66. Moore died Wednesday morning surrounded by his friends at his home in New Jersey , after years of battling a rare, incurable degenerative brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease, a spokeswoman confirmed. The official cause of death was pneumonia, a complication of his illness.

As far back as 2000, the celebrated star of such comedies as 10, Micki and Maude and Unfaithfully Yours publicly acknowledged that he was facing a "short and uncertain future" due to a disease called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, which attacks the brain cells and impairs sufferers' motor skills. "It's totally mysterious the way this illness attacks, and eats you up, and then spits you out," he told the BBC in what was his last interview. Moore, a classically trained pianist, had by then lost the ability to continue playing. It was a debilitating disease, especially for a man who had grown up next to a piano. "There's not much point feeling angry," Moore continued. "There's always this feeling of 'Why did it hit me?' and I cannot make peace with it because I know I am going to die from it. To be reduced to this insignificant version of myself is overpowering. " Moore's career spanned four decades, both in music and in film.

Born April 19, 1935 in Dagenham, near London, Moore's first love was music, as he began studying piano at the age of six, and by age 14 was playing organ at weddings. Music served as a refuge for Moore, who was taunted as a child because he had suffered from a clubfoot. He eventually won a music scholarship to study organ at Magdalen College at Oxford University. Following his graduation, Moore (by then an accomplished jazz pianist) toured the U.S. with Vic Lewis. Of course, at just 5 feet, 2 1/2 inches tall, Moore also had developed a sharp sense of humor--which he cultivated when he was recruited by late British satirist Peter Cook to join the four-man comedy revue, Beyond the Fringe, a precursor to comedy troupes like Monty Python. After playing in London and on Broadway, Moore and Cook went on to star in their own sketch comedy series Not Only...But Also. The show also served as a showcase for Moore's piano playing. The twosome produced a series of recordings as the foul-mouthed alter egos Derek and Clive.

And they teamed up several times on the big screen, appearing together in The Wrong Box in 1966 and Bedazzled a year later. Upon moving to Hollywood in the 1970s, Moore struck it big on his own. In 1978, Blake Edwards cast him in 10, in which Moore played a composer going through a midlife crisis who considers throwing away everything he's ever worked for to be with the woman of his dreams (played by Bo Derek .) Moore followed that up with the biggest role of his career, the tipsy, kid-like billionaire in Arthur (1981) , costarring Liza Minnelli . The role earned him a 1981 Oscar nomination for Best Actor. "He could make the world laugh," Minnelli said Wednesday of her former costar. Edwards and wife Julie Andrews released a statement calling Moore "a rare human being." After Arthur, Moore appeared in a string of less successful comedies, including Unfaithfully Yours, Micki and Maude, Like Father, Like Son, Crazy People and the 1988 sequel, Arthur 2: On the Rocks.

Moore was married four times--to Suzy Kendall in 1958; Tuesday Weld in 1975; Brogan Lane in 1988 and Nicole Rothschild in 1994. He had two sons: Patrick (by his marriage to Weld) and Nicholas (from his marriage to Rothschild). Over the last few years, Moore suffered four strokes in addition to undergoing open-heart surgery in 1999. Divorced from his fourth wife in 1998, Moore spent his final days in New Jersey, where he was looked after by friends. From humble beginnings to Hollywood Dudley Moore was born in Charing Cross Hospital, London, on Good Friday, 1935. He was at a disadvantage from the start, both physically and economically. According to his official biographer, Barbra Paskin, when his mother, Ada, found she had given birth to a boy with a club foot and a withered leg she said: "This isn't my baby." Ada had to be persuaded to take her son home to the Dagenham council house where she lived with her husband Jock, a railway worker, and his five-year-old sister, Barbara.

Throughout his boyhood, Moore had to endure several painful operations on his left leg that was half an inch shorter than the other, and his relationship with his mother haunted him all his life. She found it difficult to show her son the affection he craved, but at the same time she was also extremely ambitious for him. A strong-willed woman, Ada fought for him to attend grammar school, Dagenham County High, despite the headmaster's belief that he would be better off in an establishment that could deal with his physical disability. At school, he had to wear shorts that exposed his deformity and was constantly bullied about his leg. He eventually discovered a defence mechanism by making his peers laugh. Scholarship Playing the clown turned him from a victim into one of the most popular boys at the school. Moore's musical talent won him a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music where he played the piano. He taught himself the organ at his local church and had to adapt one of his mother's shoes for his deformed left leg in order to play it. To the immense pride of his mother, the boy from Essex won an organ scholarship to Oxford University.

However, his humble origins and Dagenham twang made him feel inadequate among the upper class students at Magdalen College and he felt especially out of place in the magnificent college chapel. "There I was, sitting on the organ seat playing this beautiful organ in this stunning chapel. I felt I didn't deserve to be there," he told his biographer, Ms Paskin. Satire Later, Moore was to spend years in psychotherapy dealing with this lack of self-esteem which never quite left him even after he had reached the height of fame. While at university he teamed up with Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett to write and present Beyond the Fringe, a satirical revue. This sparked the beginning of his career in showbusiness, which saw him take roles in television and film, and he also moved to the US to continue his life there. But by the late 1980s and 1990s his off-screen love life took the limelight, often gaining more column inches than his career. Moore was married four times. He wed his first wife, British actress and model Suzy Kendall in 1968, and although they divorced in 1972 they remained lifelong friends.

Three years later the actor, now living in Los Angeles, married wife number two - Tuesday Weld, also an actress. They split up 20 times during their marriage, had a son - Patrick - in 1977 and finally got divorced in 1980. Moore later expressed deep regret that he had missed out on his son's childhood. His two-year marriage to Brogan Lane, aspiring actress and 25 years younger than him, ended in 1990. Moore had already had several affairs with, among others, long-time lover Nicole Rothschild. Ms Rothschild, who was almost 30 years his junior, became his fourth and last wife in 1994. They first met at the peak of his career when she flung herself across the bonnet of his car and demanded an autograph. Their relationship was often troubled - and their rows became regular features in gossip columns on both sides of the Atlantic. Divorce Their living arrangements were also complex - Ms Rothschild's ex-husband, Charles Cleveland lived with the couple and was even present at the birth of their son, Nicholas, in 1995.

In December 1996, the couple were pictured again at the balcony of their home, reunited after another heated row. But by June 1997, Ms Rothschild sued her husband for millions, claiming he had terrorised her during their relationship. After a stream of lurid claims about sex, drugs and violence, she halted her divorce action in June 1998 after learning of his illness. Gifts As well as having a stormy love life, Moore was also known for his extravagance, which was revealed in documents produced by Ms Rothschild's lawyers, in April 1998. He allegedly spent more than ï¿½34,000 on a separate house for her not far from his mansion in Marina del Rey, as well as thousands more on gifts and cosmetic surgery for his wife, clothes for her friends, houses and holidays for her ex-husband and his family. But by the time he died, he was surrounded peacefully by friends. He leaves behind two sons - Patrick, 25, by his second wife, and six-year-old Nicholas by Ms Rothschild.

Dudley Moore - Biography - IMDb Dudley Moore Biography Showing all 50 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (4) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (31) | Personal Quotes (8) Overview (5) 5' 2½" (1.59 m) Mini Bio (1) Dudley Moore, the gifted comedian who had at least three distinct career phases that brought him great acclaim and success, actually started out as a musical prodigy as a child. He was born in Dagenham, Essex, England, in 1935, to working class parents, Ada Francis (Hughes), an English secretary, and John Havlin Moore, a Scottish railway electrician (originally from Glasgow). Dudley won a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study the organ. At university, he also studied composition and became a classically trained pianist, though his forte on the piano for public performance was jazz.

After graduating from Magdalen College in 1958, Moore was offered a position as organist at King's College, Cambridge, but turned it down in order to go to London and pursue a music and acting career. Fellow Oxonian Alan Bennett (Exter Colelge, B.A., Medieval History, 1957) had already recommended him to John Bassett, who was putting together a satirical comedy revue called "Beyond The Fringe". "Beyond The Fringe" was to be Moore's first brush with fame, along with co-stars Bennett, future theatrical director Jonathan Miller (now Sir Jonathan, who studied Medicine at Cambridge and was a physician), and Peter Cook , who was destined to become Moore's comic partner during the 1960s and '70s. It was Miller who had recommended Cook for "Beyond the Fringe", in much the same way that Bennett had bird-dogged Moore. Cook, who had studied modern languages at Cambridge, had been part of the famous Cambridge theatrical, the Footlights revue in 1959, had subsequently gone to London to star in a West End revue for Kenneth Williams , "Pieces of Eight".

This old-fashioned review was such a success there was a sequel, "One Over The Eight". He was advised by his agent not to star in the fringe with the three others as he was a professional whereas they were amateurs. Ironically, the great success of "Beyond the Fringe", which was a new kind of satirical comedy, would doom the very old-fashioned reviews that Cook had just tasted success in. "Beyond the Fringe" not only won great acclaim in the UK, but it was a hit in the U.S.. The four won a special Tony Award in 1963 for their Broadway production of "Beyond The Fringe" and there was a television program made of the revue in 1964. Moore and Cook were offered the TV show Not Only... But Also (1965) by the BBC in 1965. Peter Cook was on as a guest. Their pairing was so successful, it enjoyed a second season in 1966 and a third in 1970. They were particularly funny as the working-class characters "Pete" and "Dud".

The duo then broke into the movies, including The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). In 1974, the duo won their second Tony Award for their show "Good Night", which was the stage version of their TV series "Not Only... But Also". In the mid- to late 1970s, they issued three comic albums in the guise of the characters "Derek" and "Clive" (Moore and Cook, respectively), two lavatory attendants that many viewed as reincarnations of their earlier TV characters "Pete" and "Dud". The albums, ad libbed in a recording studio while the two drank vast quantities of alcohol, were noted at the time for their obscenity. Their typical routine was a stream-of-consciousness fugue by Cook, interspersed with interjections by Moore. With their obscenity-laden, free-formed riffs, Derke and Clive presaged the more free-wheeling shock comedy of the 1980s and '90s. After marrying American actress Tuesday Weld in 1975, Moore moved to the U.S.

and began a second career as a solo screen comedian, stealing the show from Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn as the horny conductor in the movie comedy, Foul Play (1978). When George Segal dropped out of the movie 10 (1979), director Blake Edwards cast Moore in the lead role as the composer undergoing a mid-life crisis. It was a huge hit, but was surpassed by his Oscar-nominated turn as the dipsomaniac billionaire in Arthur (1981). In the early 1980s, Moore was a top box office attraction. In 1983, the National Alliance of Theater Owners named him the Top Box Office Star-Male of the Year. His career began petering out after he turned down the lead in Splash (1984), a role that helped establish Tom Hanks as a top movie comedian and position him for his transition into movie drama and super-stardom. As Hanks star waxed, Moore's star waned, and by 1985 he was reduced to playing an elf in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), one of the all time turkeys.

Even a second turn as "Arthur" in Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) couldn't revive his box office, the dependent clause of the title all too well describing his career. His TV series Dudley (1993) [TV-Series] was a bust, and the 1990s proved a wasteland for the once-honored and prosperous comedian. Moore was deeply affected by the January 1995 death of Peter Cook by a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at the age of 57. Moore organized a two-day memorial to Cook in Los Angeles that was held in November 1995. Less than four years later, in September 1999, Moore announced that he was afflicted with progressive supra-nuclear palsy, a disease for which there is no treatment. Dudley Moore was invested as a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (one step below knighthood) in June 2001. Moore personally attended the ceremony at Buckingham Palace to accept his CBE from Prince Charles , despite being unable to speak and being wheelchair-bound.

He died in Watchung, New Jersey on March 27, 2002, from the pneumonia related to progressive supra-nuclear palsy. He was 66 years old. Dudley Moore was married four times, to actresses Suzy Kendall , Tuesday Weld , Brogan Lane and 'Nicole Rothschild', and had two sons, one with Tuesday Weld and one with Nicole Rothschild. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood Spouse (4) Trivia (31) Arrested and charged with suspicion of domestic violence on a cohabitant. [March 1994] He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "Voices That Care." Underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery, and thereafter suffered four minor strokes in swift succession. [September 1997] Moore was born with a clubfoot that was surgically corrected in his youth. In the 1950s he was a regular member of The Johnny Dankworth Seven where established himself as an accomplished jazz pianist. Co-owner of the restaurant "72 Market Street" in Venice, Los Angeles.

Attended Magdalen College, Oxford University, England, graduating in 1958. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Anglo-American film and theatre. Despite bad health, he traveled to Buckingham Palace in London, England to receive the CBE. He was cared for in his final days and through burial in Plainfield, New Jersey, by longtime friend and pianist Rena Fruchter . Friend of short films writer/editor/director Andrew Michael Jolley Turned down a job offer as organist at King's College, Cambridge, to launch his music and acting career. Godfather of Peter Cook 's eldest daughter, Lucy. In 1983 won the NATO Male Star of the Year Award. Was the first choice to play "Henry Fine" in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), only to be replaced by George Segal (who was, ironically, replaced by Moore in the role of "George Webber" in 10 (1979)).

In an interview following his announcement that he had supranuclear palsy, he revealed that he was dismissed from the role because he had trouble remembering his lines. Has won two Special Tony Awards: in 1963, along with his "Beyond the Fringe" co-stars Alan Bennett , Peter Cook , and Jonathan Miller , "for their brilliance which has shattered all the old concepts of comedy," in a show that was recreated in a television version of the same title, Beyond the Fringe (1964); and in 1974, shared with co-author and co-star Peter Cook for their show "Good Evening." Was a classically trained pianist. A bar/restaurant in Cromwell, Connecticut, USA is named in honor of him. Turned down the lead role in Splash (1984). He died on the same day as Milton Berle and Billy Wilder . He and Wilder both died of pneumonia while he and Berle both made guest appearances in The Muppet Show (1976). Interred in Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, New Jersey. He claimed to have preferred Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) to Arthur (1981).

In one of his early comedy sketches Moore played a wacky pianist named Bo Dudley, a Little Richard lookalike, wearing sunglasses (1966). His favorite movie star was Gene Kelly . Release of the book, "Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait", by Rena Fruchter . [2005] Although he was only 21 years younger than Geraldine Fitzgerald , he played her grandson in Arthur (1981) and Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988). Became a father for the 2nd time at age 60 when his 4th ex-wife Nicole Rothschild gave birth to their son Nicholas Anthony Moore on 28 June 1995. Became a father for the 1st time at age 40 when his 2nd ex-wife Tuesday Weld gave birth to their son Patrick H. Moore on 26 February 1976. His father was Scottish, from Glasgow, and his mother was English. Planned to star and direct a remake of the Billy Wilder classic Love in the Afternoon (1957), but the project fell through.

His fourth wife Nicole Rothschild claimed that Moore smoked and ate a considerable amount of crystal methamphetamine during their marriage. Although he became a major star with Arthur (1981), his only subsequent hit was Micki + Maude (1984). Personal Quotes (8) "I can't imagine not having music in my life, playing for myself or for other people. If I was asked, 'Which would you give up,' I'd have to say acting," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1988. I certainly did feel inferior. Because of class. Because of strength. Because of height...I guess if I'd been able to hit somebody in the nose...I wouldn't have been a comic. I think my own desire to be loved is what makes me sexually attractive. The confidence I now have is rooted in the discovery that who I am is okay. The ability to enjoy your sex life is central. I don't give a shit about anything else. My obsession is total. What else is there to live for? I have a very ribald sense of humor, which is conventionally known as obscene.

[on John Gielgud ] He was always coming out with these sweet, corny theatrical anecdotes, and he's got a sort of mucky sense of humor. I mean everybody thinks he reads Chaucer all day, and, in fact, he loves reading Harold Robbins . I try to seduce. Everything Is Possible | Disabilities Unlimited Everything Is Possible On September 17, 1994, Miss America was crowned in Atlantic City. Heather Whitestone, a 21 year old Birmingham native, was the only contestant to win two preliminary competitions in the swimsuit and talent categories. She held the judges and audience in awe with her talent routine, a 2 1/2 minute ballet performed to the song, “Via Dolorosa.” What makes this so special or different from any other Miss America Pageants? Heather Whitestone lost most of her hearing after a reaction to a diphtheria-tetanus shot when she was 18 months old. Many have praised her for going the distance, but Heather said at the competition, “Everything is possible.” Throughout history, many people with disabilities have risen above the ranks. Which is not surprising because one in five people have a disability.

These disabilities range from physical disabilities to less “visible” ones like learning disabilities. Most everyone knows Chris Burke and Andrea Friedman from “Life Goes On”. Both actors have Down Syndrome and mild learning disabilities. Lou Ferrigno and Maralee Matalin are both deaf actors. Steve Wonder, Ray Charles, and Roy Orbison just scratch the surface of famous people who are blind. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the most powerful president in U.S. history and he was a polio survivor. Whenever he gave a speech, he almost always did it without his wheelchair. He also ignored the Secret Service about driving his own car. Someone that no one can forget is Helen Keller. She became blind and deaf from a disease in infancy. She learned to communicate with hand-in-hand sign language. One of my favorite television shows of all time is M*A*S*H. If you look carefully at some of the episodes you can see that Gary Berghoff (Radar) had a smaller left hand and that he would always try to hide it in each episode. Alan Alda (Hawkeye) is said to be a Polio survivor.

William Christopher (Father Mulcahy) has an autistic son and he and his wife are very active in the Autism Society of America. “Come to the dark side, Luke”, Darth Vadar’s voice was done by James Earl Jones who has a stuttering disability. Famous country singer and “Cannonball Run” star Mel Tillis also has a stuttering disability. I really liked the way the show “MacGyver” used the real life disability of Dana Elkar. He was affected by glaucoma and instead of writing him off the show, they used it on the show. Make-believe imitating real life, go figure. Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Cruise both have Dyslexia. Nancy Reagan has or had Cancer (Not sure if it’s all gone or not). Danny Glover has epilepsy. Peter Falk has an artificial eye. Dudley Moore was born with a club foot. Race car driver, Mario Andretti is a diabetic. Florence Henderson (Mrs. Brady) was born with spina bifida. And the list goes on. For the most part, these people were made famous by their achievements, not their disabilities. They put their best efforts forward and reached for their dreams.

The odds of making a list like this are better, one in five, than getting struck by lightning. Just ask Benjamin Franklin. Remember: Everything is possible! 'Dad was messed up, but I forgive him' - Telegraph 'Dad was messed up, but I forgive him' Image 1 of 3 Out of tune: Patrick's relationship with his father wasn't helped by the fact that, as a 6ft adult, he towered above the 5ft 2in comic Caroline Goodhart 12:01AM GMT 06 Jan 2005 How did Dudley Moore's eldest son end up a drug abuser, sleeping rough outside his father's mansion? Caroline Goodhart meets him There are no family portraits on display in Patrick Moore's run-down apartment. The only memento is an old keyboard in the centre of the living room that used to belong to his father. "When he was playing this, he was happy," Patrick recalls. Even by the standards of this run-down, graffiti-covered neighbourhood, the one-room rented flat in Harlem is a mess. Empty milk cartons and discarded prescription bottles litter the floor.

Yet this bedsit in a no-go area of New York is home to the eldest child of one of Britain's most beloved comic actors and musicians. As the son of Dudley Moore and Sixties actress Tuesday Weld, Patrick Moore ought to be a big name in Hollywood. Instead, two years after his father's death, he is struggling to pursue a career as a musician while living on a modest allowance from his father's £5 million estate. Yet even having a roof over his head is a step up for Patrick. Just months before Dudley, 66, succumbed to progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) , a crippling brain disease that dogged his last years and left him unable to walk or speak, Patrick was homeless in California. "I started sleeping on the beach near my dad's old house in Marina Del Rey," he says. "It was the place that had given me my only happy childhood memories." Speaking publicly for the first time, Patrick, 28, says that his father's death was the jolt that he needed to attempt to get his life back on track. "There have been times when I have found it very embarrassing to admit that both my parents were movie stars," he says.

"Growing up, I always had a lot of money and privilege, but I was a lonely kid and neither of my parents were around much. They were busy with their own problems, so I was abandoned and left pretty much to fend for myself. I took drugs to try and numb that pain." Patrick is a shy young man, who has inherited his father's soulful brown eyes and impish smile. But at 6ft, he easily towered over the 5ft 2in comic. For an insecure man like Dudley, who had been born with a club foot, the fact that his son was so much taller was a source of embarrassment. "He felt uncomfortable about it," says Patrick. "He would flinch if I put my arm around him. He didn't like to be reminded of his size." Considering he has lived a life marred by drug abuse and homelessness, Patrick has a boyish face that remains remarkably fresh and unscathed. His troubles can be traced back to early childhood: when he was just four, his parents split up after a short marriage. Dudley met Tuesday Weld on Broadway, where he was performing, in 1974. They married the following year in Las Vegas – and Patrick was born soon afterwards.

It was always going to be an ill-fated union. Weld, the second of Dudley's four wives, already had a reputation for wild living and an outspoken manner by the time they met. A former child star, she had attempted suicide at the age of 12. Dudley, known for his hot temper and eye for the ladies, had endured a difficult childhood himself, scarred by his relationship with his mother and spells in hospital to correct his disability. Despite his success with Beyond the Fringe, Peter Cook and, later, as a Hollywood actor, he never managed to shake off the pain of his childhood and was plagued by depression. The couple are said to have split up 20 times during their fiery marriage, and by the time Dudley had made the jump to international stardom in the film 10 in 1980, they were divorced. Following their separation, Patrick went to live with his mother in New York. But though the couple agreed to share custody, Patrick craved his father's love and attention. "My mother forced me to put up posters of her movies on my bedroom walls. It seemed more important to her that I see her as a movie star than as a parent.

Of course, my dad had his problems, but he could be fun to be with. He would always be goofing around and pulling faces. "I would tell him how unhappy I was with my mom – and that I wanted to come to California and live with him full-time. He would say: 'Look, I know what you're going through', but he never did anything about it. During school vacations, I would visit him at his house in Los Angeles. After a few days, he would get snappy because he didn't want me around any more. I used to perform comedy sketches and play the piano for him to try and please him. After a while, he would get impatient until he'd eventually say,'Can I go now?' He preferred to do his own thing, to shut himself away and play music." At 18, Patrick tried to follow in his parents' footsteps; in the hope of becoming an actor, he moved to LA, where Dudley had enthusiastically embraced the wild celebrity life. "I began to see that my dad had a lot of problems which he never really sorted out. At that time, he was a party guy who had lived the Hollywood lifestyle too long.

He had two houses, a family house and a party house, to which I was never allowed to go. "There were a lot of unsuitable people hanging around and there were some big rows with Nicole [Rothschild, Dudley's fourth wife]. He would come out of the bedroom with his face covered in scratches. There were call girls, too, wandering in and out, but I was always told he only had them to dance for him." It began to dawn on Patrick that there was something seriously wrong with his father's health when – while taking a drive with him – Dudley careered into the car in front for no apparent reason. It was, he now believes, one of the first signs of PSP, a Parkinson's-like illness which attacks the parts of the brain which control balance and speech. "The last time I saw my dad, I knew something was wrong. It was as if he was drunk, but he also seemed very brittle. He told me the same thoughts kept going round in his head, like a loop.

He told me:'They say there's something wrong with me, but they can't figure out what it is.' " As his health deteriorated, Dudley moved to the East Coast – to New Jersey – where he was cared for by his close friend, pianist Rena Fruchter. Dudley cut off all contact with his son – and the rejection tipped Patrick over the edge. His drug habit, which had started when he smoked pot at 18, grew steadily worse. "I had a coke phase, a speed phase and also a crack phase, which lasted four or five months," says Patrick. "I took drugs to blot out the abandonment I felt. I got involved with the wrong people." His feelings of rejection were compounded when, on one occasion, Patrick tried to visit his father in hospital and found that Dudley had fled by the back door. "I knew he was trying to avoid me, and it hurt. I was told he didn't need the stress of seeing me, and that he didn't want me to see his deterioration. "I called him in New Jersey, but Rena said she was worried that I only wanted to ask my dad for money for drugs. That hurt me so badly.

I tried five times to talk to him, but I never got to speak to him again." Deeply depressed, Patrick would walk for miles along the beach in California each day, before returning to sleep under the lifeguard tower in front of his father's former home. "I showered in gas station toilets. I used to go to the pharmacy where my father still held an account to buy sandwiches and soda. It all felt like a bad dream. I remember waking up one morning on a park bench in Hollywood and thinking to myself: 'My God, is this how my life is going to end?' " Finally, Patrick was given the news that his father had died of pneumonia when he called the actor's office from a payphone. His only consolation is that a few days before his death, Dudley made a last-ditch gesture of reconciliation by trying to arrange somewhere for his son to live. But he died before he could fulfil his wish. "I had been talking with his business manager because my dad was trying to set me up with an apartment. I think he wanted to make sure I was looked after. I asked if my dad could send some money for food. The guy said he wasn't sure, but he would check.

He called back later and said: 'I'm sorry to tell you this, but your dad just passed away.' I was numb. I had no idea it was that close." Patrick returned to New York, and had two long spells in rehab clinics in an effort to put his life back together; he now believes he has turned a corner. In two years' time, when he turns 30, he will inherit a large chunk of his father's fortune, which he will share with his younger half-brother, Nicholas, Dudley's son by Nicole Rothschild. But before then, he is determined to find a new home and to work on his music, the only pursuit that really brought his father solace. Standing over the keyboard, Patrick recalls one happy memory of his father. Dudley would sometimes sit and play a piece he composed in his ten-year-old son's honour – the song was called, simply, Patrick. "My dad was a messed-up guy who didn't deal with his hang-ups. But I forgive him. He just wasn't suited to the role of being a father."

Question: What physical handicap was Dudley Moore born with
Answer: Club foot